In Ford Motor Company v. Department of Revenue, (Del. Supr., Dec. 8, 2008), read opinion here, the Delaware Supreme Court upheld the imposition of a Delaware tax on certain sales by Ford in the State of Delaware. (One might observe that Ford has not had much good news lately).
Here is a very short excerpt from the High Court’s opinion describing the lower court decision it upheld:
… the Director [of Revenue for the State of Delaware] may lawfully impose an unapportioned tax on Ford’s receipts from sales of motor vehicles sold to independent dealerships located in Delaware.
The arcane minutiae of state taxation is beyond the scope of this blog, but this decision is clearly included within the broad scope of "commercial litigation in Delaware", so I wanted to at least make passing reference to it here, and for those interested, the link to the whole opinion is above. Of course, the issues addressed in this opinion have potentially far-reaching impact on many companies across the country doing business in Delaware to the extent that this opinion deals with whether a certain state tax interferes with interstate commerce and whether that tax runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution’s protection of that commerce.